Leny Yoro's Pre-Season Journey: From Right-Back to Centre-Back

Leny Yoro walked out at right-back in Helsinki last weekend, a £52million centre-half marooned on the flank as Manchester United slipped to defeat against Wrexham. It was an odd sight, a reminder of where his Old Trafford story is right now: on the fringes, waiting, still a promise rather than a pillar.

That cannot last much longer.

A window opens

Pre-season rolls on to Trondheim and Rosenborg next, and with no major stars back at Carrington yet, Michael Carrick is expected to lean on the same group that faced the Championship side. That probably means another stint at right-back for Yoro.

For now, he will take it. These games are about legs, lungs and sharpness. And by reporting for day one of pre-season, he has already stolen a march on several rivals for a starting spot when United open their Premier League campaign at Hull City on August 22.

The picture at centre-back is shifting in his favour.

Harry Maguire and Ayden Heaven started together at the heart of defence against Wrexham and could continue that partnership in Norway. Matthijs de Ligt remains at Carrington working his way back from back surgery and will not be ready for the start of the new campaign.

Lisandro Martinez completes what, on paper, looks like a formidable defensive unit for Carrick. But paper does not account for scars. The Argentine has just come through World Cup heartbreak, forced off injured after being named in the team of the tournament, his shirt pulled over his face as the dream dissolved.

He is now on holiday, which suggests the issue is not serious, yet as of Wednesday he still did not know the full extent of the problem. Even if he returns to training in early August, it is a race to be fully up to speed for the trip to the newly-promoted Tigers. Realistically, that leaves a vacancy next to Maguire at the MKM Stadium.

The talent that has waited

On the left side, Heaven, 19, mirrors Martinez as a left-footer and offers balance. But in terms of pure development, Yoro is ahead of the former Arsenal defender. When United beat Real Madrid to sign him from Lille in the summer of 2024, they did not part with £52m for a long-term project. They expected a regular.

Two seasons on, that has not happened. Not yet.

Yoro has started only 30 Premier League games since arriving, his time in red punctuated by brief flashes of the form that once had Europe’s elite circling. The raw materials that excited the club have never been in doubt.

“Leny is one of the most exciting young defenders in world football; he possesses every attribute needed to develop into a top-class centre-back,” said sporting director Dan Ashworth when the deal went through.

Those attributes have not gone anywhere. Pace. Timing. Composure. A defender built for the modern game. What has been missing is continuity and trust. Since joining United, he has sat on the bench in the league 28 times, watching the same names go up on the teamsheet ahead of his.

He turns 21 in November. At the same time, his international horizon is changing too. With Zinedine Zidane set to replace Didier Deschamps, the competition for places in the French squad will reset. Yoro knows it. This season is not just big; it is defining. He could end it as a regular for United and with a seat on the plane for France.

Carrick’s dilemma

If he does start at Hull, it will be more than a selection. It will be a statement.

Carrick’s success last season came from ruthless consistency. He trusted a core XI and rarely broke it up. That stability underpinned United’s improvement, but it came at a cost for players like Yoro, who lived on the outside looking in.

At centre-back, the pecking order has been clear: Maguire and Martinez first, everyone else after. When De Ligt returns, he will bring his own sense of unfinished business, another heavyweight fighting for minutes.

Yet the future is obvious. It wears the numbers of Yoro and Heaven.

Maguire has told people he believes the pair can become United’s version of Gabriel and William Saliba, the partnership that has turned Arsenal into the Premier League’s most miserly defence. That is the standard being thrown down in the dressing room.

To reach it, Yoro has to step out of the “potential” bracket and into the team sheet. Not as an emergency right-back. As a centre-half Carrick cannot ignore.

Pre-season has started with him out of position, shuttling up and down the flank. If his talent and timing finally align over the next few weeks, the first day of the new season could find him where he always expected to be: standing in the middle, marshalling United’s defence, and beginning the year that decides what kind of career he is going to have.